Images of Aviation

Name: Naval Air Station Oceana Fleet Defenders
Brand: Mark A. Chambers
SKU: 9781467108119
Price: 17.99 USD
Availability: InStock

The Images of Aviation American history book series celebrates the people, the aircraft, and the events that define American aviation history. Touch down at the Los Angeles International Airport or explore the mysteries of Area 51. Step into space history with the Johnson Space Center, meet America’s founders in flight, from the Wright brothers to Glenn H. Curtiss, or join the Pan Am crew as the company made flight history. From Edwards Air Force Base to Kansas City’s B-25 Factory, these aviation books take readers to new heights. [View all Images of Aviation Books]

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Naval Air Station Oceana Fleet Defenders

Paperback

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

Ellington Field

Paperback

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Flight Training at the United States Naval Academy

Paperback

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Liberal Army Airfield

Paperback

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Naval Air Station Oceana Fleet Defenders

9781467108119

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

Since 1950, US Navy fleet defender (fighter) squadrons—home-based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia—have served as a vital part of the country’s national defense and helped to exert global US naval firepower. Over the years, NAS Oceana–based fleet defender squadrons have participated in combat during the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf Wars and in military incidents and conflicts in Libya as well as Kosovo and Afghanistan. During the Cold War, NAS Oceana–based fleet defender squadrons served as crucial deterrents to the Soviet Union’s acts of aggression and provocation. More recently, NAS Oceana–based fleet defender squadrons have been highly engaged in the ongoing War on Terrorism, striking Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) targets in Iraq and Syria and Taliban targets in Afghanistan. Today, these squadrons stand ready to defend the United States, its naval fleets, and its interests abroad.

Ellington Field

9781467104807

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Ellington Field was one of 32 training airfields authorized by Congress in 1917. During World War I, it became one of the most highly regarded training fields in the United States, reaching a peak of 250 aircraft and 5,000 troops. From that peak, it experienced many ups and downs. Closed by 1940, it was reopened for World War II to conduct advanced aviation training. Closed again in 1946, it reopened for the Cold War as a combat and training air base. It then became NASA's airfield for Johnson Space Center. As the Cold War wound down, in 1984 Ellington became Houston's third municipal airport. From Jennies to jets, Ellington's story mirrors America's aviation history from 1917 to the 21st century.

Flight Training at the United States Naval Academy

9781467160421

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The United States Naval Academy was founded in 1845 in Annapolis, Maryland, after experience showed that the policy of training naval officers solely through shipboard experience was ineffective. The development of aircraft in the early 20th century was a technological change that impacted the academy. The efforts of naval aviation advocates, led by Capt. Washington I. Chambers, resulted in the Navy acquiring its first aircraft in 1911 and basing them near the US Naval Academy where sufficient land and material resources were available to support flight operations. Later, under Supt. Adm. Louis W. Nulton, aviation entered the curriculum as an element of fundamental naval education, taking a place among major subjects such as seamanship and gunnery. Classroom instruction and indoctrination flights provided all midshipmen with a familiarization in aviation as an important element in their development as naval officers before circumstances forced a shift of training to other facilities by 1962.

Liberal Army Airfield

9781467162289

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The southwest corner of Kansas was once home to Liberal Army Airfield. For 27 months, from April 1943 to September 1945, the desolate plains of Kansas were alive with the deep throaty roar of the B-24 Liberator.

The Liberal Army Airfield trained approximately one-quarter of all B-24 commanders. Residents of the area recall few days and nights in which they did not hear the familiar roar of the big Pratt & Whitney engines flying overhead. What was once a wheat field, a symbol of peace, became thousands of feet of concrete runways used to train pilots for vital World War II missions. To this day, many of the runways and structures of the base still survive. Years have passed since the inception and closure of the base, but its history will always be a part of Liberal, Kansas.

Lidia Hook-Gray was born in Liberal and raised in the adjacent Oklahoma Panhandle. A local history buff, she has always been intrigued by the Liberal Army Airfield, the big B-24s, the people that came to the base, and their stories. Hook-Gray is also the author of Liberal and Seward County. Connie Gray-Bowman was born in Liberal. Her father, Herbert Gray, flew 52 combat missions as a nose gunner on a B-24 with the 454th Bombardment Group, the Tailwind Crew. His last assignment was stationed at the Liberal base, where he met his wife at a USO dance.